egyptian president mohammed morsi backed off a decree giving him authority. he order aid new order giving military power to arrest sls while a new constitution is finalized and voted on this saturday. former president hosni mubarak issued a similar decree before he lost power declaring emergency law in egypt. meanwhile, the national salvation front, the secular liberal opposition, is considering a boycott of the charter vote and is calling for protests in advancing the vote this weekend. joining us now from cairo is nbc news foreign correspondent amman. thank you for joining us. my first question is just about the motivations, morsi's motive augustss here. initially when this sort of power grab, if you will -- we'll call it that -- began, there was some sense and some analysis that this was an effort to -- an effort at efficiency, to get things down and that the democratic process would be restored. that seems increasingly less the case. this seems like a consolidation of power. what is your read on the situation? >> well, i think it's very important to depen